The Future Is Now: Evan Leaphart of Kiddie Kredit On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up Our World
Having kids learn and understand credit before they actually have to deal with it is something that has never consistently been emphasized before despite being a huge part of our society. The overall financial literacy for kids is fragmented, so a lot of our developments are geared towards being more collaborative in nature rather than competitive. This means that we may recommend products that work better for teaching within a specific age demographic or partnering with other platforms that teach about investing or saving since we hyperfocus on teaching credit. When we say that we teach credit we get thrown into a box of all other financial literacy apps and that’s really not what we’re about, our mission is to teach about credit.
As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Evan Leaphart, Founder of Kiddie Kredit, a mobile chore tracking app that teaches kids about credit. He combines a passion for financial literacy and innovation with a commitment to solving real problems that help the community around him. As a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Black Men Talk Tech Conference, Evan’s previous endeavors include a cleaning business and an auto transport business. With regards to Kiddie Kredit, Evan explains, “I’ve always enjoyed being an entrepreneur but it feels good being focused on the project I’ve always wanted to create.” Evan’s early childhood experiences in Pittsburgh and Baltimore allowed him exposure to many different cultures and environments which has aided in his ability to connect and mentor youth. Evan encourages youth to follow their dreams and pursue their passions — to create great careers rather than jobs that make everyday feel like work. He now commutes between Los Angeles and Miami for work.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I started Kiddie Kredit for two reasons. The first being that I’ve always felt entrepreneurship is one of the biggest keys to our society. If we had more entrepreneurs, especially in more adversely affected communities, we’d see these communities improve through more job opportunities as well as overall economic growth. The issue is businesses are difficult to start and they require capital. I’ve been asked numerous times how much money I raised for Kiddie Kredit through friends and family, which is a very elitist assumption since a lot of individuals don’t have friends and family who can act as a financial resource. The thing is, if those people who want to start a business had better credit and access to the credit world earlier they would be in a better position to start up on their own. That’s where Kiddie Kredit comes in, by implementing financial literacy from an early age through chores, we tackle this issue of adults not being able to fund their projects and dreams.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I would honestly say that seeing the support I get from others due to their familiarity with the issue of not learning what credit was early on is one of the most interesting things I’ve learned. The most common response I get from people when I explain my business is, “Oh my god where was this when I was a kid!” It’s just been very fascinating to see how common this problem really is and that there isn’t a mainstream solution for it yet.
Can you tell us about the “Bleeding edge” technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
Having kids learn and understand credit before they actually have to deal with it is something that has never consistently been emphasized before despite being a huge part of our society. The overall financial literacy for kids is fragmented, so a lot of our developments are geared towards being more collaborative in nature rather than competitive. This means that we may recommend products that work better for teaching within a specific age demographic or partnering with other platforms that teach about investing or saving since we hyperfocus on teaching credit. When we say that we teach credit we get thrown into a box of all other financial literacy apps and that’s really not what we’re about, our mission is to teach about credit.
How do you think this might change the world?
If we had a generation of youth that turned 18 and instinctively understood credit we’d see massive amounts of debt reduction. There’d be a more economic chance for people to start their business from early on without having to accumulate better credit over their 20s and throughout their careers. We would have economic equality because the barriers for entry to a lot of opportunities would be greatly reduced in America if everybody started out with a better credit score.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
A lot of times people get concerned when you tell them about creating some sort of credit school for kids, they think that it’s a way to track them early but that’s not our intention at all. We’re not collecting any data from the kid’s side of the app, we just focus on how to provide them with a good education about the mechanics of credit. Currently, kids might receive one or two lessons about credit during their middle school or high school education, but it’s not something that’s been fundamentally instilled at least on a programming level to help kids understand what it is. Our app is just an introduction so that kids will know how credit works when they reach an applicable age.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
I was at a job and I had a business idea that I wanted to start so I looked into it and my credit score wasn’t good enough which prompted me to think back on how I’d made so many financial mistakes as a young adult and even though it wasn’t that many years of mistakes it was about 3x the amount of the length in terms of time for recovery. I just had this aha moment that I feel like most people experience about why I hadn’t learned or been taught about credit earlier.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
I want to make sure that we focus on growth and are building an app that’s prepared for that. The demographic we serve is parents and children which is such an important asset to life so we want to make sure our security is safe and solid. We are also improving the UI and UX so that parents love it because of its simplicity while still being engaging enough for the kid to want to use it consistently.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
We’ve been fortunate enough to have some organic features on what we’re doing, Forbes for example, and I just did an interview with CNBC as well as some smaller features in the South Florida area where we’re located. We’ve gotten a lot of support around our project and part of that could be appreciation for me but I think it’s based more on the fact that we have created something that if done right can be very impactful.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Matt Cohen. He and I built the initial wire frames for Kiddie Kredit together and he had done this before so he was really able to help me with the learning curve. The app he already built had scaled up to 100,000 users so he knows what it takes to get an app to that initial point as well as general knowledge about what it’s like to be the founder of a startup. There’s a lot of things I may not have known or might have learned eventually but not as quick if it hadn’t been for him so I’m very grateful.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Right now we’re just focused on doing the work. We can bring good to the world by educating kids so that they’ll be able to know what utilization means or what making a payment on time looks like. That type of knowledge is pivotal to our world, so by increasing the success of the company we are simultaneously bringing more good to the world in terms of setting people up for more financial freedom and opportunities.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
- I know you think that it’ll be hard (in all honestly it’ll probably be even harder than what you’re expecting) but the payoff is incredibly rewarding. Just make sure to stay on course and focus on building up the product rather than making money, because if your product is undeniable it’ll be easier to promote and potentially save you work later down the line.
- Have motivated team members around you at all times. The journey is going to be tough and a lot of times you and your team members are working for no money so it’s important to have mission driven people as opposed to money driven. The people working on Kiddie Kredit helped motivate me greatly and by having dedicated team members it’ll ensure that they can help carry the project through tough times.
- Make sure you have some mental balance. It’s going to take a toll on your family, friends, and significant others so I found it really important to have conversations to make sure that they understand that the reason you’re doing what you’re doing and how you’ll be behaving for the next couple months or years is so after you can live a life more free.
- Find your own way to organize. It can be really challenging to have a daunting list of 100 tasks in front of you. I found that instead of looking at it as a whole and getting overwhelmed, it’s more efficient and less daunting to create a to-do list and oragnize that way. Focus on two tasks per day and by the end of two months that initial list will be gone and you’ll be able to look back and feel accomplished. Just don’t get overwhelmed by what you have to do, instead break it down piece-by-piece and you’ll get there.
- Be supportive of other founders. As lonely as your journey is, other founders are going through the same situation, so just find your support system so you can talk about shared struggles. You should be aware that as a founder you’ll have to ask people for things so make sure when you’re doing this you’re thinking in a win-win mindset and also make a point to give without asking for anything in return. I like to think this increases your founder karma.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Economic equality; I want to live in a world where all ethnicities are provided with equal opportunities. For example Black communities, we have tremendous amounts of Black power but our average wealth per household is significantly less and there’s reasons for that outside of our control that’s only just starting to be more addressed. I want to be able to help others build towards generational wealth and reduce poverty for generations to come by helping them learn how to put themselves in an advantageous situation.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” This quote resonates with me because it reminds me of why I do what I do. Why I work 12–16 hours a day and choose to run on very little sleep. I try to be mission oriented and always keep the goal in mind. One of my favorite books is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey and one of the habits is to always begin with the end in mind. This ties back into the quote and I just believe it’s really important to try and always have a goal so that you can see the reason for all your hard work.
Some very well known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
The three things VCs are typically looking to hear about is your team, your traction, and your revenue. We have a very strong team at Kiddie Kredit, we have a lead engineer at Amazon as our CPO, a chief engagement officer that’s taught financial literacy and entrepreneurship for over 15 years, the founder of Black Wallet which is a leading financial blog for urban millennials and a digital marketing influencer as our CMO, and some really amazing mentors. Our company also officially partnered with Equifax Foundation recently and we are focusing heavily on building the 2.0 version of our app to release in the next couple of months. Essentially, you want to get in now before it’s too late.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
My personal Twitter and Instagram is @EvanLeaphart and the username for Kiddie Kredit is @Kiddiekredit.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
The Future Is Now: Evan Leaphart of Kiddie Kredit On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
